Johns Hopkins dominates Muhlenberg in 33-21 victory

September 22, 2012|By Jeff Schuler, Of The Morning Call

On his team's sixth offensive play Saturday afternoon, already trailing by a touchdown and facing a fourth-and-1 just inside Johns Hopkins territory, Muhlenberg coach Mike Donnelly elected to keep his offense on the field rather than send in his punt team.

The objective, Donnelly admitted afterward, was to try to keep the Blue Jays offense off the field.

"It's fourth down and 1… we have to make those first downs if we want to beat a team like Johns Hopkins," Donnelly said.

"I thought it was a good strategy on Mike's part," Hopkins coach Jim Margraff said.

Sound strategy, perhaps. But executing that strategy was another story.

Behind an offense that rolled up 480 yards and 29 first downs, the nationally ranked Blue Jays controlled the football for more than 36 minutes and turned the Centennial Conference showdown at Scotty Wood Stadium into a one-sided affair, cruising to a 33-21 win that ended Muhlenberg's seven-game win streak (dating back to last season) and also spoiled its Homecoming.

"I think any time you play up at Muhlenberg and it's Homecoming, it's an impressive win," Margraff said.

The first downs were the most by a Mules opponent since Cal Lutheran had 27 in 2001, and two shy of the most ever against Muhlenberg (29 by Gettysburg in 1994).

"We couldn't get off the field [defensively]," Donnelly said.

"That's the kind of team they are. They just pick at you and pick at you and pick at you until you break," added Ian Gimbar, the Mules sophomore linebacker from Saucon Valley. "They're just big, and when you're small like we are and trying to use your speed and finesse to beat guys, it can wear down on you."

The Jays yardage was the most by a conference opponent against the Mules (3-1, 2-1) since Gettysburg had 486 in a 2009 win, and was more than double the Mules' pre-game defensive average of 228 yards a game.

"The lesson to be learned is that we have to play harder," Donnelly said.

"You have to do your job and you have to play every play as hard as you can," Gimbar said. "If you take one play off they're going to capitalize, and that's what happened today."

Muhlenberg's first three opponents had run for a collective total of 238 yards, but Hopkins ran for 273 on Saturday. The Jays, who extended their regular-season winning streak to 18 and conference streak to 16, had 159 rushing yards in the second half alone, keeping the Muhlenberg offense on the sideline for all but 9:47 of the 30 minutes.

"It's nice to be able to catch your breath on the sideline on a day like this," said Hopkins senior defensive back and Central Catholic grad Adam Schweyer.

When they had the ball, the Mules struggled to sustain drives — they were only 4-of-13 on third-down conversions and 1-of-4 on fourth down, scoring their first touchdown on a fourth-and-goal pass from Dan Dieghan to Palisades grad John Gruver to tie the game at 7-7.

"It's not just their offense," Donnelly said. "They're good on both sides of the ball. Their talent in the skill positions is as good as anybody else in the league, but where they're really making the difference is up front. They're big, they're strong, and I thought they did a great job of front controlling the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball."

A few key penalties didn't help the Mules either. In the first half, a third-down Hopkins incompletion was negated by a defensive holding call on third-and-9, leading to the first of two Richie Carbone field goals that gave the Jays a 13-7 halftime lead.

After Terrance Dandridge's 13-yard scoring run kept the Mules within 20-14 late in the third quarter, a pass interference on fourth-and-8 incompletion gave Hopkins a first down at the Muhlenberg 13; two plays later, J.D. Abbott scored the first of his two touchdowns to extend the lead to 26-14.

Finally, after Joe Hogh's 25-yard return of a blocked punt got the Mules within 11 points with 2:32 left, the Mules gave the Homecoming crowd hopes of a miracle comeback by recovering an ensuing on-sides kick — but the Mules were offsides on the play, and Hopkins recovered the second attempt and ran out the clock.

"When you're in this type of game, every penalty is ill-advised," Donnelly said. "The fourth down holding call that extended a drive, that was a killer, [and] we'll see on film whether it was holding. The other, it's fourth and a mile, we've got all kinds of coverage and we panicked and grabbed a guy, clear-cut pass interference, and that extends the drive and they score and it's the dagger in our heart."

"We shot ourselves in the foot way too many times today," Gimbar added.

Hopkins (4-0, 3-0), which remained in a first-place conference tie with Gettysburg, never trailed after Jonathan Riguad capped the game-opening drive with a 56-yard touchdown run. The Blue Jays also scored on their first possession of the second half to extend their halftime lead to 20-7.

"You come into here, it's Homecoming, they're fired up, and the last thing you want to do is get knocked off balance early, so the long run for us was huge," Margraff said. "And at halftime, kicking off to them is scary, and to hold them and get a score … those were probably the two biggest scores of the game."

"Every centennial Conference game is a tough one, but when you look at the bullet point this week, the winner of this game has gone on to win the conference every year but one since 2001," Margraff added. "You know it's going to be a physical game, you know it's going to be tough. I was just excited our guys played with so much confidence and as well as they did."